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The Morning Fix, Tuesday May 5

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After the coffee. Before the Blackberry.

Most people don’t like Mondays but The CW, headed by Dawn Ostroff, doesn’t like Sundays. The broadcast network, co-owned by CBS and Time Warner, is officially pulling the plug this fall on trying to program Sunday nights, reports Variety. The network, which doesn’t program Saturday either, had unofficially pulled the plug last season when it cut a deal for an outside supplier to program the night. Ratings tanked and movies were quickly thrown on instead. Variety

Lots of spin out of NBC, which unveiled six new shows for fall. The network left out the part about what time slot most of the shows will occupy. Of course, since schedules are written on etch-o-sketches these days, the network did not declare the fate of ‘Chuck,’ the low-rated hour whose rabid fans -- which include many television reporters and critics -- have taken to the web to try to save. However, NBC did talk tough to the stars of ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,’ who want more money. The show, said NBC Entertainment honcho Marc Graboff, is coming back with or with out them. Los Angeles Times

The Federal Trade Commission is poking around the boards of Google and Apple, says The New York Times. With Google CEO Eric Schmidt on both his own board and Apple and former Greentech chief Arthur Levinson on both boards, the FTC wants to see if this is in violation of the Clayton Antitrust Act which frowns on people being on the boards of competing companies. Of course, in Hollywood potential conflicts are just known as business as usual. New York Times

More not-so-happy news from Madison Avenue. TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks ad spending, said the fourth quarter of 2009 was off 9.2% and the first quarter of this year is also shaping up to be pretty grim. Wall Street Journal

What, me Twitter? Facebook is moving closer to live status updates in a way similar to its fast growing, less articulate rival, Twitter. Tech Crunch

-- Joe Flint

Photo Credits: CW President Dawn Ostroff/Cliff Lipson The CW
Google CEO Eric Schmidt/Paul Sakuma, Associated Press

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